Meant to Be (RightMatch.com Trilogy) (6 page)

“I’m sorry about that,” Ava continued. “Damn Cole Matheson for tricking you.”

“Well, you must be Ava!” The familiar voice curled though Beth like good brandy. Still, when she looked up, she was startled to see Cole standing at their table.

“Excuse me?” Ava said. “Have we met?”

“No, which is why I don’t understand your taking my name in vain.”

Ava sat back in her seat and eyed him. “Oh, shit. You’re
him!”
She scanned him from head to toe “You don’t look like your picture online.”

“Don’t tell me. I look
young.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned his gaze on Beth and she felt it shoot to every nerve ending. “Hello, Beth. Are you all right?”

At his intimate tone, Beth’s stomach sank to her knees. “No, I’m not. I’m miserable.”

“So am I, honey. So am I.”

o0o

Cole acted on his gut, which right now was twisted in Boy Scout knots. “Come with me.” Reaching over, he stretched out his hand. Beth took it and slid out of the booth.

Ava stood, too, her face red with indignation. “Now, wait just a minute.”

“No, Ava. I’d decided to let your mother go, but meeting her here—” he waved his hand around the restaurant “—was meant to be.”

Beth’s daughter arched a brow and sidled in close to her mother. “I don’t think so.”

“Cole, everything okay?”

Turning, Cole found three men with thunderclouds on their faces approach him and Beth and Ava. His dad had spoken. “You’re creating bit of a stir here.”

“Look guys,” he said, without introducing any of them. “I need some space.”

Joey hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “This her?”

“Um, yeah, but Joe…”

“We don’t much like how you’ve hurt Cole, Beth,” Spence said without any of the suave diplomacy that had always been a part of him. “I’m his oldest brother.”

“Now, boys.” Rick gave them all a stern look.

Cole watched Beth’s face. He thought maybe she was going to cry but then a giggle escaped her. “What are you, his posse?”

“We
don’t
think this is funny.” Joe again.

Beth held on tight to Cole’s hand. “I’m sorry, but you make me feel fifteen and that I’m being scolded by my boyfriend’s family for breaking up with him.”

“That’s because this guy”—Ava jammed an angry thumb at Cole— “is so much younger than you. And because he lied to you.”

For some reason, Cole bit back a smile, too. “I’m getting older fast,” he said, then rolled his eyes at Beth.

She bestowed on him one of those smiles that made his heart leap. It made him ask, “Did you drive here?”

“No, Ava drove me up. What about you?”

“Got my own car.”

Cocking his head, he gave her a chance to agree or disagree. She nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

They started away amidst the cacophony of protest: “What the hell, Mother!” and “Son, do you really think this is wise?”

Ignoring their families, Cole strode with Beth to the door. His dad’s question stuck in his head, though. This wasn’t wise, but right now, he didn’t give a shit. All he wanted was Beth Montgomery.

o0o

It was a cheap motel, only five minutes from Napoli’s. Neither Beth nor Cole spoke as they drove to it, still holding hands. But when he pulled into the lot, he faced her. His heart sank at the lines of fatigue around her mouth and eyes. And her color wasn’t good, despite the sunny yellow blouse she wore. “This okay?”

“God, yes.”

Soon they were in a postage stamp–size room, but the sheets were clean when he tore the covers back, and the blinds snapped closed when Beth shut them. The room was thrown into semi-darkness. They ripped their own clothes off and Beth slid onto the bed. Cole took the time to roll on a condom he’d stuffed in his wallet when he’d thought he might go out and have meaningless sex because she’d ditched him. He hadn’t, of course, and was very glad now.

His body covered hers and he began kissing her all over. “Oh. Jesus. Oh, God.”

“Hush. Don’t talk,” she whispered. “I can’t wait.”

He took a few seconds to kiss her breasts, to grind his palm between her legs. She tried to grasp the hard length of him, but he pushed her away. Easing them both on their sides, he scissored her legs. When he plunged into her, she called out his name. It took only seconds for them to come simultaneously, which was the last thing Cole remembered before he surfaced from near unconsciousness.

He lay on his side, watching her. The sun was setting and its last rays peeked through the blinds, catching her in its golden glow. In that instant, he knew he was never going to let her go, no matter what happened, no matter what he had to do to keep her in his life.

“Don’t talk,” she said.

“I won’t.”

“I’m exhausted. I’ve had almost no sleep.”

“Then close your eyes. I have something I have to do tonight, but I can stay till eight.”

“All right.” She nestled into him and slept. Cole set his phone to wake them up in an hour and then he shut out the fact that he was indeed still lying to her.

Chapter 4

The upcoming Labor Day weekend was always full at the Inn, and though they’d added some kitchen, wait staff and housekeeping personnel, both Beth and MJ were slammed with work. And Beth had a headache from trying to figure out where she and Cole stood. She was in the dining hall, reviewing the menu for an outdoor barbeque on Monday when loud voices came from the foyer.

“Well, I’m
not
,” a male voice spoke loudly.

Female murmurs followed, which were, Beth guessed, an attempt to be soothing. It wasn’t working. Beth excused herself from the chef and went out to the entryway. MJ shot her a maybe-you-can-fix-this look, so she said, “Mr. and Mrs. Cramden, can I help you?”

“I’m sorry,” the woman whispered, her face flushing, “We didn’t mean to be so loud.”

“I’m not sorry; I’m
unhappy
.” The burly man pounded one beefy hand on the reception table. “Our room is too small and doesn’t face the lake.”

“Hmm. Let me check the reservation.” The comment was a formality, because Beth knew when they’d booked, but she checked the ledger anyway. “I see that you reserved your room in March.”

“Plenty of time,” Mr. Cramden groused.

“Yes, for the room you’re currently occupying. All the suites facing the lake were taken at that time.”

Cramden cut off his wife when she was about to speak. “The woman on the phone said she’d get us a better room.” He practically growled the complaint and shot an angry glance at MJ.

Beth pretended to read the ledger again. “I see a note here from our manager. It says we’d put you on a waiting list in case of a cancellation for the weekend.” She faced him squarely. “No one canceled.”

The man gave her the evil eye. “I want to talk to whoever is in charge of the Inn.”

 “That would be me. I’m the owner, Beth Montgomery.” Though it killed her, she kept her voice calm. “If you’d like to cancel your reservation, I’ll give you a full refund even though you’ve already spent one night here.”

“George, please. Don’t do that.” The poor woman was embarrassed.

As she’d suspected he would, the guy backed off. He was wrong and knew it. Beth was sorry she’d have to deal with them on such a busy weekend. And when her nerves were raw.

When she finally got a minute to herself, she absconded to the privacy of her suite in the back of the Inn. Sitting down at her personal computer, she woke up her server. By tacit agreement, she and Cole had left the question of continuing their relationship unanswered. After an incredible bout of sex, instead of making any decisions, they’d simply left it at
Let’s talk on email for a while.

So she was once again waiting every day to see if there was a missive from Cole Matheson.

o0o

Sabrina Jenkins was as pretty as her name. Cole had hired her as the site’s psychologist two years ago and he’d never regretted it. Together, they’d devised the profile questionnaires based on her recommendations, then he’d left her to make any revisions along the way. Their site was smaller than average, and more expensive, and computers did the algorithms for the matches like mega sites, but Sabrina reviewed them and took care of potential problems. Since she was the mother of twins and wanted to work part-time at home, the arrangement suited them both. So when she’d called this morning, he’d been worried. Neither had babysitters, so they met at the local park, and while their kids played in the sandbox, they sat side by side on a bench.

“I think,” Sabrina said, “that we have a predator on the site.”

It was the last thing he expected. “What?”

“I think we have a predator. You know I follow-up on all the complaints and then send what I’ve done with them to you, but I wanted to talk to you in person about this one.”

“Most of our complaints come from the poor souls saying they got rejected and think it’s our fault. One woman griped about the price of renewal being too high for her. Stuff like that.”

“Up until now, yes. But we have a more serious issue this time. A woman named Carrie Lawson accepted a date with a man she’d been corresponding with for a few weeks. They met at a restaurant in Rockland, as we advise, but she wasn’t intrigued enough to have a second date.”

“Which happens to a large percentage of the clients. They go on to date other people, though, until something clicks.”

“Well, this guy isn’t giving up. He keeps emailing Carrie, even after she shut him down.”

He shot a quick glance at Ellie who was filling her shoes with sand. “And the woman’s irritated?”

“No, she says it’s creepy. She feels unsafe.”

“Ah, that’s not good.” Cole frowned. “First thing, we’ll refund his money and bar him from our site. Then I’ll call our lawyer and have him write a cease-and-desist letter for the guy to stop emailing her. If we have to take it further, I’ll contact Joe. I may talk to him anyway.”

“Okay, good.” Sabrina was still scowling.

“You don’t look like it’s good.”

“I have a bad feeling about this one.”

“Don’t you think we’re doing all we can for the safety of our customers?”

Cole and Sabrina and their attorney had taken precautions. First, they asked for more information than most sites, like name and address of clients, then they used a background site called BeenChecked.com to run a cursory investigation of the name given. And finally, they demanded the signup fee be paid by check. It was more complicated to operate this way, and they might have lost clients, but the cost of joining was high anyway, so they’d probably already weeded out those with no bank account. In any case, the check would confirm the name and address given in the initial profile. When customers renewed, they could use a credit card. His team also cross-referenced clients in the sexual-offender database. Finally, a section of RightMatch.com was devoted to Internet Dating Safety Tips.

“I think we’ve set up as many precautions as humanly possible, but they’re not foolproof. I went back over the guy’s profile and I missed a few flags. He has some potential warning signs in his profile that signal he might be unstable. Or a liar, at the very least.”

“If we cut out anyone with a hint of instability or capacity to lie,” Cole included with no small matter of guilt, “we wouldn’t have much of a business.”

Sabrina laughed.

“Anyway, we’ll get rid of him and I’ll make sure the lawyer follows up. I’ll personally keep an eye on her pages. Send me all the information by email.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Their business concluded, Cole and Sabina took the kids to a nearby diner for some treats, then parted. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’re bound to get some bad ones in the bunch. We’ll take care of this.”

His words were mostly bravado, though. He was more worried than he let on. His first thought was to talk to Beth and get her opinion, but he decided not to do that. He obviously couldn’t talk to her about unsavory characters online when he’d lied—was still lying—to her.

Damn, he missed sharing his life with her. They’d come together last Sunday in a miasma of need and desire, but nothing had been solved between them.

He got home, and as Ellie was ready for a nap, he rocked her until she fell asleep, then headed for the computer. Luckily, Beth was online, her instant message active.

o0o

Whew! What a week!
her first missive read.

Yeah, but it started off great on Sunday!
He typed in a virtual wink.
Want to tell me what happened?

Cranky customers and too much work. How was yours?

Problems with the site.

A long pause.
You can talk to me about what you do, Cole.

Can I? We haven’t made any decisions about, well, us.

An even longer pause.
I have.

His heart began to pound.
Oh, what? the guy said trying to act casual but his heart is in his mouth. 

I’ve changed my mind, Cole. Let’s give it shot.

He practically fell off his chair with relief.
What made you decide?

Great sex.

He grinned at the computer.

Seriously? I’ve been miserable. Let’s see if we can handle this. I want to be with you.

I want to be with you, too.

I can take Sunday off. MJ’s with her family Saturday, I have Sunday to myself though we’ve got a big shindig on Monday because of Labor Day.

Oh, okay.
He made a split-second decision.
Come to my place Sunday.
Which translated to: time to reveal the second lie.

Just send the address. I’ll be there early in the morning.

Can’t wait.

And that, Cole thought, was that. Time to come clean. Time to confess all. He’d made his bed, and now he’d see if she’d sleep in it with him.

o0o

Since early September in Rockland had turned hot, Beth stood before Cole’s apartment complex dressed simply in jean capris and a white camisole top; she’d brought pastries and the hazelnut coffee he liked. Please, she prayed as she headed inside and up the elevator, let this be the right decision.